Man on a Mission

I have just started to notice that the AMC theater chain now tags some of its offerings with the designation "AMC Select," meaning "special films for special tastes." E.g., Running with Scissors, Catch a Fire, Marie Antoinette, Little Miss Sunshine. An objective observer, of course, will have long since reconciled himself to the idea that the taste of the ghoul and the ninny will be the taste of the mass, the mainstream, the middle of the road. No cautionary note of "special" need be attached to the likes of Saw III and Jackass Number Two. Come one, come all. Wherever an element of evaluation enters the picture, however, there will always be room for dispute, as when something like Flags of Our Fathers is excluded from the ranks of the "special" and lumped in with such unesoteric fare as Employee of the Month and Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. If "special tastes" are understood to be finicky tastes, discriminating tastes, refined tastes, as opposed to merely quirky tastes, minority tastes, oddball tastes, then they can hardly be guaranteed satisfaction by surrendering to AMC's guidance.

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The lampposts of Little Italy, more honestly an Itsy-Bitsy Italy, have been adorned with vertical banners in tribute to prominent Italian-Americans. The one at the northwest corner of Fir and India, a block from the Reader offices, honors the household-name movie director, "Martin Scorese." That's what it says. "Scorese."